There are two ways to get your homeschool happy ending. The first is long term and makes your whole homeschool venture a success. The second is more immediate – because, while we all want that eventual happy ending, day to day satisfaction is important too.
Your Long-Term Homeschool Happy Ending
The best way to get your homeschool happy ending is to pick your destination. Define your goals and why they’re important to you. Decide if your homeschooling will encompass:
- A year or two away from public school.
- K through 8th grade.
- From now all the way through high school.
Beyond that, you need your compelling reason(s) – your ‘why’ for homeschooling. If you have a clear understanding of why you’re homeschooling and your destination, homeschooling becomes infinitely easier. You may not know exactly how you’re going to get there, but you’ll figure it out as you go along.
Begin with the end in mind.
Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
You’ve probably seen Covey’s advice before. And you’ve probably heard countless admonitions to find your ‘why’. These two phrases are overused for a reason.
You can get through a lot of days without clear definitions of your ‘why’ and your destination. But the challenging days (and we all have them) become even more difficult when you don’t have a firm grasp on why you’re homeschooling and where you want to go with it.
Be Flexible
You don’t need to chisel your reasons and goals for homeschooling in stone. Your ‘why’ can change and so can your destination. Most notably, your how is definitely going to evolve.
As time goes by, you’ll become more adept at homeschooling and discover better ways to teach. Your children’s abilities, interests, and skills will continue to develop and change. You’ll adjust your homeschooling reasons and expectations accordingly.
The important takeaway is that you periodically check in with yourself. Update your ‘why’ and your destination as needed. Remind yourself of them regularly. Not only will this help sustain you through challenging days, it will make the countless decisions regarding how you homeschool easier. And, it will ensure more short-term happiness.
The Daily Homeschool Happy Ending
Finding a happy ending on a daily basis is largely dependent on you. Just as your positive attitude can lift and motivate your children, a day when your attitude is less than stellar can quickly spiral downward.
If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
Origin Unkown
You can’t expect to run at 100% every single day, but you can design your days to lift your percentage up.
What makes you happy? A productive day at home? A social day? A field trip day? Some time to yourself? Chances are, all of those are important. Find a good mix. And think about how to structure things so that you generally feel pretty happy about your homeschooling on a day to day basis.
Your Perception of a Happy Ending
There’s some fascinating research out there about our perception of happiness. The results of a well-known study look something like this – if we go on vacation and have 5 great days and 2 bad days, the placement of those bad days is super important in our overall memory. If they occur at the beginning of the vacation, we’ll remember the vacation as happier than if they happened on the last two days.
When you look at this in relation to one homeschool day, it’s a great reminder to try and end things on a good note each day. If you have a fabulous morning and a crappy afternoon, you’re not going to feel as good about things as if the inverse were true.
Yes, I know. You want a fabulous morning and a fabulous afternoon. You want every day to feel like a vacation. We all do. The great thing about homeschooling? It often does feel like a vacation.
Still, you might look at how to consistently end things on a positive note. Look at the rhythms of your household. Do you need more time together or alone towards the end of your school day? More structure or less? Try to tune in on how to end things on a good note and see how that changes your overall perception of homeschooling happiness.
Of course, you’ll have days where someone goes to bed cranky. And that someone might be you. It happens. Get some rest, revisit your why and your goals, and remember that tomorrow’s another day. Another chance for a happy ending.
If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.
Orson Welles
Keep creating your happy endings as you go along. Homeschooling gives you so many opportunities to find happiness, today and down the road.
Enjoy!
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